that?” Leo asks. He still has the broom in his hand, swiping back and forth. He hasn’t moved spots. Just keeps cleaning the already clean floors.
I hesitate, because Leo’s standing there, waiting, that one eyebrow quirked, and Drake—my boyfriend—knows enough about me to know that Leo Preston standing in front of me is probably not a good thing... for all parties involved. Leo’s staring at my general waist area where Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” plays from my phone—Drake’s ringtone.
When it finally stops playing, Leo looks up at me, those piercing blue eyes judging me. “It’s complicated,” I tell him before he has a chance to ask.
Complicated is an understatement, and when Leo’s face doesn’t change, I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. Leo smiles to one side, drops his gaze, and focuses on sweeping again. “Does Holden know your back, or did you plan on surprising him, too?”
My arms are still crossed when I tell him, “No and yes. In that order. Unless you plan on ruining that, too.”
“How did I ruin things?” Leo glances up, just his eyes, and that judgment is back again. His tone is even, calm, when he deadpans, “You’ve changed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snap.
He offers a lazy shrug and puts the broom against the nearest wall. “You’re, like, feisty.”
Eyes wide, mouth hanging open, I glare at him. I am not feisty. I’m just… protecting myself. I have to around him, otherwise… otherwise, I’ll lose myself in him again, and that’s the last thing I want. Or need.
He shrugs on a shirt, completely unaware of the thoughts circling my mind. When he turns to me, he says, those judgmental eyes now dark with an emotion I’m all too familiar with, “You better close that mouth, Mia Ko-vatch, before I pull out something to fill it.”
My jaw snaps shut, heat burning every inch of my flesh. And then I punch his shoulder. Hard. The boy laughs, the sound bouncing off the walls. “I was just testing you,” he says, taking my hand, as if I’m a child needing help to cross the road, and leading me to the door.
“Testing what?”
“How much you’ve changed.” He doesn’t let go of me as he walks me to my grandpa’s truck, opens the passenger door for me. He motions for me to get inside, but I stand my ground and tug out of his hold.
“And?” I ask because I’m curious. It’s been a year since we’ve had any contact. Things have changed. “How much?”
Leo shakes his head, his eyes holding more power than he knows what to do with. “Not a lot,” he says, lifting me by my waist onto the seat. “You’re still my Mia.”
A single moment, a minute, a lifetime. That’s how long it takes for my mind to catch up to what my ears have just devoured.
I don’t take a breath. Not a single one. He’s still watching me, his eyes shifting in minuscule movements. It’s as if he’s memorizing every inch of my face. Like a cattle prod burning into flesh, he’s taking in every dip, every bump, every hue of every feature, and searing it into his brain.
Too late, I respond, my voice just above a whisper, “I’m not your anything.”
Unlike me, his response is instant. “We’ll see.” And then he shuts my door, and I watch with bated breath as he makes his way around the car and gets behind the wheel as if all of this is completely normal.
Swallowing my nerves, my mind’s still playing catch-up as I tug on my seatbelt, asking, “Where are we going?”
“Holden and I had plans to meet up for lunch at the diner. You can surprise him there.”
Eyes wide in shock, I stare at his profile. “So many questions,” I mutter, and Leo chuckles.
“Lucky we have all summer.” He starts the truck and puts it in gear, but he doesn’t make a move to leave. When he turns to me, I don’t see the Leo I walked in on today, the one full of sexual innuendo. And I don’t even see the version of him I gave my first kiss to. This Leo is fifteen years old, and he’s just about to tell me his greatest fear in life. “You’re going to stay this time, right?”
I look away, because the vulnerability in his eyes may just blind me. “Maybe,” I breathe out.
“Maybe,” he repeats. “That’s good.”
My eyes, my heart, my everything gravitates to him again. “It is?”
“Well, a maybe’s not a no.” He cracks